Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The Office of Vice President Dick Cheney has declared itself exempt from a yearly requirement to report how it uses its power to classify secret information. Basically, what they do is no one's business. Hundreds of thousands of pages are evaluated by the Information Security Oversight Office -- but only one teeny note arrived from Cheney's office explaining why he wasn't going to disclose anything...for the third year in a row.

Though not the only government entity to shrug off the reporting duties, Cheney's office is unique in that it has actually issued a public justification for its non-compliance. Cheney's office argued on Monday that its dual role in the federal government places it above the reporting mandate.

"This matter has been carefully reviewed, and it has been determined that the reporting requirement does not apply to [the Office of the Vice President], which has both executive and legislative functions," Lea McBride, a spokesperson for Cheney's office, told The NewStandard.

Cheney's press aides declined to specify to TNS how the office's legislative role effectively exempted it from the executive order, or why the office had complied prior to 2003.

And we live in a democracy? 'For the people, by the people" and all that? Really?